“Last year ‘Meet the Press’ brought in a brand consultant–not, as reported, a psychological one–to better understand how its anchor connects,” NBC News spokesperson Meghan Pianta tells TheWrap. “This is certainly not unusual for any television program, especially one that’s driven so heavily by one person.”

The author of WaPo’s original report, Paul Fahiri, told TheWrap he confirmed that the consultant was psychological twice.

“I did confirm it (twice, in fact),” he says. “The issue seems to be that they couldn’t find the exact right people within the company –on Easter Sunday, no less–who knew all the details. So they confirmed in general yesterday that this research was done, but are characterizing it as ‘branding’ rather than ‘psychological’ now.”